The use of tissue scaffold to facilitate the repair and regrowth of bone and other tissue is known in the art, for example, from U.S. Pat. No. 7,338,517 which discloses an implantable scaffold with biopolymer fibrils aligned in helical patterns of opposite directions.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,416,564 describes a bone scaffold made from porous ceramic substrate of a material such as zirconia which is then coated with a fluorapatite layer and a hydroxyapatite layer. The porous substrate was prepared by dipping a foam template into a slurry. The porosity is aligned irregularly and randomly and does not run continuously along a longitudinal axis from one end of the object to the other end. The fabrication requires repeated dipping and drying.